Old Crewe videos..........

Model railways for charity,this sunday!!!!!

The latest Cheshire Railway Modellers exhibition takes place on Sunday 25th January at the Heritage Centre off Vernon Way (by Tescos). The enthusiasts held a similar event at this time last year to raise money for charity and are repeating the exhibition in aid of the same two charities - St Luke's Hospice at Winsford and the Heritage Centre in Crewe. It all starts at 10am and runs until 4pm in the afternoon. Admission is £4 for an adult and £3 for children and OAPs. There is also a bargain family ticket at £10 which will admit two adults and up to three children. Proceeds after expenses will be donated to the two charities.

BBC NEWS | England | North Yorkshire | Public unveiling for steam train

BBC NEWS | England | North Yorkshire | Public unveiling for steam train

West coast overheads damaged again!!!!!

Click on the west coast mainline title(above image)for news of yet more west coast mainline disruption.....

Station Ends Group

Another you tube link,This is the station ends group who have a large selection of modern and nostalgic videos.Crewe features in the video linked below and the URL is added below to take you to the site for more excellent videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/StationEndGroup

Merry Xmas From the Blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wishing you all a very happy and safe xmas for 2008,and a happy new year.I hope you all get what you asked for and that 2009 brings you all everything you would like.Ive featured a nice xmas day image from the welsh highland railway to set the scene,I don't suppose we will have a white xmas but if anyone gets any local snaps that they would like featured on the blog please e.mail them me or feel free to post a link on the comments section.Merry xmas again.............................

New Timetable comes into effect....14th December

With Network rails major upgrade of the west coast mainline now complete new timetables have come into effect as of 14th december 2008 for local and national services affecting Crewe,There will be services which cover North/south/mid Wales all coming through to Crewe to head onto destinations such as Manchester.There will be the Manchester to london train calling at crewe and stoke as well as Northern rails standard Crewe to manchester/Airport services.Chester services remain unaffected as do Shrewsbury services...The major change comes with virgin announcing there will be on service from Crewe to Glasgow direct(london to glasgow service).For those who are affected by local services head over to the Manchester Community Rail Partnership website(link at the side of the page) to view most of the local service timetables as published by the relavant Train operating company

The good old days(click here for link)

Here is a link i have been sent that shows just how much crewe station/traction has changed over the past ten to fifteen years,This excellent fotopic site is the work of Dave rowlands who has a collection of over 125 photos dedicated to Crewe in the early 1990s especially.

Class 52 westerns to visit crewe......

The class 52 western diesel locomotives will make an appearance at Crewe over the festive period,On the 29th of December at around 10:15am on its way North to carlsile.The class52s may be double headed and should make an excellent site on what will probably be a cold and chilly winter morning.For more information follow the link for uk rail tours at the side of this page or go to pathfinder tours website :for times and prices:www.pathfindertours.co.uk

*******Update***********
Pathfinder tours have now announced that there will now be class 56s pulling this charter,not the "Westerns" as planned above..Timings are now departing Crewe at 10:40am.

You Tube channels

Over on you tube is a small band of people dedicated to bringing you a good selection of Crewes rail movements at its best and sometimes its worse,Todays featured is from a young lady who goes by the you tube tag of puffernutterlou,she has a large selection of videos covering all major steam and diesel events in and around Crewe....this one features one of Crewes finest steam engines"6233 The Duchess of Sutherland" on charter duties earlier this year,enjoy!

Steam Workings at Crewe(Black five locos)

The 13th of December is the next steam run through planned for a stop at Crewe station ,that is the xmas"Cathedrals express going to Chester,with a Crewe built "Black five loco"...due in crewe roughly around 11:00-11:30am will pause and fill up with water on platform 12 before departing for Chester,as yet i have no return times and i am unsure if the loco will need to fill up again on the return journey...The black fives were probably one of the least glamorous classes of locos during there working life,known for there strength and versatility rather than speed and distance records.Now restored a selection of the locos are available to travel on at preserved railways such as the Severn Valley railway,and the East lancs railway..However its not very often we get to see one on a mainline working.I hope to get out and see the loco and will post any pics/videos over next weekend.

45 JOBS TO GO AT RAIL COMPANY

Following on from the news that LNWR Crewe are being taken over by Arriva transport,Bombardier train maintenance company has announced plans for 45 job cuts of which 38 are office based staff and 7 in manufacturing.The company is "allegedly" going through a consultation period and have asked staff for voluntary redundancies first before any other action is taken.It seems it is just as tough times for the rail industry as with any other business sector at the moment and we can only hope that things don't get any worse over the next six months or so as the economic downturn continues..